Archive for September, 2010

We all know it’s there, and there are a lot of us out there who use it – so why does the civilised internet like to pretend it doesn’t exist? That’s the question James Ledbetter asked in a column in Slate this week, when talking about erotica appearing on the Kindle store. Snip: As I […]

The Ralph Lauren label has released a children’s book! Really? What does a fashion label know about children’s books? Nothing! But they do know how to sell clothes… and it appears that that’s exactly what they are doing with The RL Gang. The RL Gang is the story of eight cute kids in very cute […]

Confession time. I don’t hate Dan Brown. In fact, I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code. I know, I know, in literary terms this is up there with saying that you preferred the movie of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to the book or you favour tomes with chewable covers and pop-up illustrations on every […]

Ah, Lauren Kate. You do torture me so. When I read Fallen, I must admit, it didn’t particularly exceed my expectations. I expected a nice ‘fallen angel’ YA romance and that’s pretty much what I got. Lucky for me, the followup, Torment offers much, much more. Spoilers for Fallen will have to follow – you […]

When Robyn Opie was fifteen, her English teacher gave her an ‘A’ for every essay she wrote. One day, as he handed back her essay, he said, ‘You should be a writer’. I was stunned. I hadn’t thought about being a writer. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about people writing books. I mean, I […]

Anyone who has ever read an ebook and flown on a plane (or perhaps just sat next to me on a plane) will know that you can’t read ebooks on a plane during the crucial moments of take off and landing. To anyone with the attention span of a baby monkey (like me), these moments […]

Ford Street Publishing is a small Australian publisher specialising in books for kids and teens. Set up by author Paul Collins, it is an imprint of Hybrid Publishers. In just three years they have published over 20 books from established authors such as Hazel Edwards and Gary Crew through to newcomers like Foz Meadows and […]

When it comes to romance, I think we are using books the wrong way. There are countless books about dating. They range from positive to negative to the extremely off-putting, including titles such as Dating Fitness, which combines dating with gym imagery (have YOU flexed your dating muscles recently?), and thus makes the whole thing […]

Kate Morton fans – we have a pre-release copy of The Distant Hours to giveaway, courtesy of the great people at Allen and Unwin! Kate is the bestselling author of The Forgotten Garden and The Shifting Fog. Her third novel, The Distant Hours, will be released in November. To win the book, all that we […]

The much-awaited David Hicks autobiography will hit shelves on 16 October 2010. You can pre-order the David Hicks book here… Guantanamo: My Journey is the first published account by David Hicks of the years leading up to his incarceration in the infamous US military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, his time as a detainee, and […]

Today I’m pleased to welcome children’s author Marianne Musgrove to Kids’ Book Capers. Marianne is a former social worker, tomato picker, museum guide for kids and law school dropout who says that the thing she likes most about writing is inventing. Marianne is also descended from Henry VIII’s librarian (true story) so you could say […]

For my fiftieth post (yes, my fiftieth!), I’d like to revisit a topic close to my heart. Piracy. In the world of digital content, piracy has been around longer than most legitimate forms of digital purchase. Anyone who claims to have been reading ebooks since they had a Palm Pilot probably at some point acquired […]

I love libraries! I can’t imagine a world without them. But I wasn’t always so enamoured with them. Once upon a time, in my dim and dark past, libraries were places to be fearful of. The first library I remember visiting was my primary school library way back in the 1970s. Once a week our […]

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype that ebooks are sounding the death knell of printed books, but if there’s one thing that South America has reminded me, it’s that printed books are far from dead—they’re alive and well in the hands of travellers. Everywhere I look, backpackers and flashpackers are clutching or […]

In August 2009, Scribe launched the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian writer aged 35 and over, regardless of publication history. The winner received $12,000 and a book contract from Scribe. Maris Morton, born in 1938, has never had a book published before and was thrilled to win the inaugural […]

The Samurai Kids and Sensei are on their way to the hwarang training village in search of Pak Cho, Sensei’s former teacher. At first, Kyung, the guide with the gun is determined to stop them, but he soon realizes that the travellers are more than a match for him. In their latest adventure, Niya, Kyoko, […]

The pen may be mightier of the two but, after years forging a career as Britain’s best-selling fantasy author with over 65 million books sold to his name, Terry Pratchett decided it was time to forge a sword instead of writing about them. Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services […]

Earlier this month, Fire Lizard, the much anticipated fifth book in the Samurai Kid’s series was released. I know my boys weren’t the only ones who were really looking forward to it. Today, Sandy Fussell is back at Kid’s Book Capers to talk about Fire Lizard and how she created this fascinating book. What inspired […]

We’re back with Claudia Gray, author of Hourglass. In this post is a spoiler about Book 4, Afterlife, that Claudia says she’s never released to the public before! Gosh, readers, are you spoilt or what?! So, Claudia – books on your bedside table? I just finished FURIOUS LOVE. I’m currently reading DAUGHTERS OF KURA. You’ll […]

Jaguar Warrior by Sandy Fussell begins with slave boy Atl imprisoned in a box waiting to be sacrificed. When the Spanish invade a fast runner is needed to request help from the nearby city of Purepecha; Atl is released. However, the Captain of the Temple Guard believes Mexica is losing the battle because Atl has […]

I’ve heard a whole range of responses to the announcement of Google’s answer to the ebook question, from the pessimistic (this won’t change anything), to the hysterical (this development is going to single-handedly save the book industry worldwide!). As with most of the stuff I cover on this blog, the answer is probably somewhere between […]

Four days into my 20-day trip to South America, I realised that I have made the biggest, rookiest, most unforgiveable mistake: instead of taking my own advice that there’s no such thing as too many books, and loading up and weighing down my bag big time with paperbacks I’ll never have time to read, I […]

The way to a man’s heart may be through his stomach, but the way to understand a person’s heart comes straight off their bookshelf, according to the law in Michigan. The judgement on 15-year-old, Justin Furnari, who killed a woman in a hit-and-run car accident, included an intriguing twist – a stipulation to read. In […]

I was incredibly lucky to score an interview with the fantastic Claudia Gray, author of the Hourglass book I gave away on this blog a few weeks ago. Thanks so much HarperCollins – she’s a charmer! Hi Claudia, hope you have a smashing time while you’re in Australia, and thank you in advance for taking […]

Q: What do novelists do in their spare time? A: They create iPhone applications, of course. Well, at least one Melbourne novelist has. Narrelle M Harris, author of the rather fab vampire novel, The Opposite of Life, recently launched Melbourne Literary, an app for the iPhone. This app can be used to discover literary locations, […]

Since her first book was published in 2007, Sandy Fussell has had four educational and seven trade titles published. Sandy says she became an author after receiving some strongly worded advice from her son. When he was in Year 4, my eldest son abruptly stopped reading because ‘all books are boring’. I couldn’t find anything […]

Every book I have read in the The Mates series (published by Omnibus) has been full of great characters and humour and the two books I’m talking about today are no exception. These uniquely Australian stories celebrate what it is to be Australian – our history, our inventiveness and unique perspectives on life. And these […]

Sony’s line of ereader devices have been around since 2006, but for the first time the company has made them available for sale in Australia. Sony has done a content deal with the Kobo / Borders ebook store so owners will be able to load up ePub books from those stores. They’ll be making two […]

I’d normally say that a reader’s awareness of how clever writers are and how many eloquent, too-clever words they use is a sign of the writers trying too hard and of their pomposity. But nothing’s further from that truth with John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Race of a Lifetime: How Obama Won the White House. […]

I was originally intending to write a post about what my family and I have been reading lately. But I’ve ended up focusing specifically on what my wife, Kerri, has been reading. Why? Because she’s been reading books by an author significant to my reading past. It all started when she asked me to recommend […]

Maris Morton has always loved to write but has never had a book published. At the age of 72 she will finally see her name in bookstores when her winning entry to the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize, A Darker Music, hits the shelves at the end of this month. While there is no doubt Maris […]

For all the debates about the future of the book, which are getting both tedious and, well, whiny, there’s a refreshing new take on the matter. It’s a book called, er, It’s a Book. Crafted by Lane Smith, it’s a simple but wry reminder of how books are good, standalone objects that don’t need to […]

Gary Ross, the director of Pleasantville, appears to be the front runner to direct the film adaptation of The Hunger Games after Deadline reported the director is in early talks to helm the film scripted by Billy Ray (who rewrote the novel’s author, Suzanne Collins’ original draft). Other directors whose names have been thrown into the mix include American […]

“I love you…” “I know.” This is one for film buffs and Star Wars fans – a newly-announced in-depth look at the making of fan-favourite second/fifth installment, The Empire Strikes Back. As someone who devours making-of documentaries on anything Star Wars, I honestly can’t wait… Check out the clip below. Description An exclusive behind-the-scenes look […]

As the release of the first part of the final installment of the Harry Potter film franchise fast approaches, Warner Bros. have released a TV spot. Click here to view the trailer, it contains some never-before-scene footage… and now I’ll have the theme song stuck in my head all day… Thanks, JK.

In my travels as an author, I meet many aspiring young writers. I hope they will take inspiration from today’s guest, 16 year-old author, Steph Bowe. Steph has taken time out from her hectic schedule to visit Kids’ Book Capers to talk about becoming a writer, and about her brand new book, Girl Saves Boy. […]

*Taps pen against chin* Hmmm. How to possibly write a post commemorating one of the most amazing authors of all time, that will actually do him justice. I can’t. But I can profess my undying love for Roald Dahl, a day AFTER Roald Dahl Day. Yes, dear readers, I was meant to write this post […]